This River is Rated R
The Saco is the second-most-popular river in the eastern U.S., visited by thousands of paddlers a weekend. But how do you police a 134-mile-long floating party?
By Abby Zimet, Photography by Dean Abramson
Dust swirls in the parking lot as an endless cavalcade of cars and trucks wheel in and disgorge the party-goers. Wearing T-shirts that say "So many lures, so little time!" and other slogans unprintable in a family magazine, they tramp back and forth to the river's edge, lugging their riotous goods: coolers, tents, tarps, stoves, fold-up tables, barbecues, vodka and lawn chairs and Cheez-Its and toilet paper, cases of water, cases of beer, boom boxes and tiki lights, charcoal and margarita mix, duffel bags on their shoulders and canoes on their heads and inflatable palm trees towed behind.
